US Trump‘s ‘Harvest Box’ Isn’t Viable in SNAP Overhaul, Officials Say

16:51 14 february 2018

16:51 14 february 2018 Source:
The New York Times

Trump Budget Swaps Food Stamps for Packages of Cereals, Milk

In what would be one of the biggest shakeups of the U.S. food-stamp program in its five-decade history, President Donald Trump is proposing to slash cash payments and substitute them with "100 percent American grown food" given to recipients.The changes, outlined Monday in Trump’s budget proposal, would reshape the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which supports roughly one in eight Americans, by reducing cash spending by about one-third from current levels.

The proposal unveiled in President Trump ’ s budget would overhaul the country’s core food assistance program — commonly known as SNAP . Not Anytime Soon, Officials Say . Image. People paid for fresh produce using federal assistance at a farmers market in Lake Orion, Mich., in 2013.CreditLauren

WASHINGTON — The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program offers about 46 million low-income Americans both sustenance and economic choice by providing an allowance to buy the fruit, meat, fresh vegetables, soda, ice cream and kind of bread they want to eat.

Sign Up For the Morning Briefing Newsletter

But on Monday, the Trump administration sprung a surprise: Under a proposal in the president’s budget many participants in the program would be given half their benefits in the form of a “Harvest Box” full of food preselected for nutritional value and economic benefit to American farmers. The cache of cheaper peanut butter, canned goods, pasta, cereal, “shelf stable” milk and other products would now be selected by the federal government, not by the people actually eating it.

Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon considered running for president should President Trump resign or be impeached, according to the new edition of a book about Trump.An excerpt from Josh Green's "Devil's Bargain" published by Politico on Monday details the ambition of Trump's former top aide.

The Trump administration has proposed a radical overhaul to the food stamp program that would replace some people’ s benefits with a “ Harvest box ” “It’ s an enormous cut in benefits,” Vollinger said of the Trump budget proposal for SNAP . “That’ s really the biggest takeaway.” Was this article helpful?

The proposal seemed like a radical overhaul of the country’s core food assistance program — once called food stamps but now commonly known as SNAP. The idea was to shave about $21 billion a year from the federal deficit over the next 10 years. But the reaction was immediate, and largely negative.

Democrats claimed the plan shackled the poor while business groups, led by big food retailers, would stand to lose billions of dollars in lost SNAP business. The head of one trade association typically supportive of President Trump’s economic policies accused the administration of reneging on its pledge to cut “red tape and regulations.”

In reality, administration officials on Tuesday admitted that the food-box plan — which the president’s budget director Mick Mulvaney compared to the Blue Apron grocery delivery service — had virtually no chance of being implemented anytime soon.

American Carnage

In his inaugural address, Donald Trump declared, “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.” He knew it would not. We know it did not. “I’ll be able to make sure that when you walk down the street in your inner city, or wherever you are, you’re not going to be shot,” he declared during the campaign. “Your child isn’t going to be shot.” He has not been able to make sure of that––ask any parent whose children were caught up in any of the recent school shootings.Trump gave those credulous enough to believe him false hope.“The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end,” he vowed at the Republican National Convention.

President Donald Trump wants to radically overhaul a critical safety net program that covers more than 42 million people — or roughly one in eight Americans. The package, called America’ s Harvest Box , would be like Blue Apron for poor folks, White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said on Monday.

Pence ‘thinks Jesus tells him to say things’, says former Trump aide. But they have come up with a snappy name of their own for these putative bundles of nutrition and deliciousness: “America’ s Harvest Box ”.

Instead, the idea, according to two administration officials who worked on the proposal, was a political gambit by fiscal hawks in the administration aimed at outraging liberals and stirring up members of the president’s own party working on the latest version of the farm bill. The move, they said, was intended to lay down a marker that the administration is serious about pressing for about $85 billion in other cuts to food assistance programs that will be achieved, in part, by imposing strict new work requirements on recipients.

“I don’t think there’s really any support for their box plan. And, I worry that it’s a distraction from the budget’s proposal to cut SNAP by some 30 percent. That’s the real battle,” said Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive Washington think tank. “The dangers are these other proposals to cut benefits. But all anyone is talking about today are the boxes.”

Angry note to Trump Jr. revealed: 'You are getting what you deserve'

An envelope with suspicious powder sent to Donald Trump Jr. included a note that told him, 'You are getting what you deserve,' officials said. An envelope with suspicious powder sent to one of President Donald Trump's sons also included a threatening note, senior law enforcement officials told NBC News.

The Trump administration has proposed a radical overhaul to the food stamp program that would replace some people’ s benefits with a “ Harvest box ” “It’ s an enormous cut in benefits,” Vollinger said of the Trump budget proposal for SNAP . “That’ s really the biggest takeaway.” Was this article helpful?

Mulvaney’ s remarks drew raised eyebrows from some critics, who accuse the Trump administration official of drawing an unfair comparison between the food But the administration’ s SNAP proposal was particularly striking, advocates and experts said “USDA America’ s Harvest Box is a bold

Senator Debbie Stabenow, the ranking Democrat on the agriculture committee, doubted the motives behind the plan.

“This isn’t a serious proposal and is clearly meant to be a distraction,” Ms. Stabenow said.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue stealthily pitched the idea over the last few weeks to the White House’s Domestic Policy Council as a novel way to reach the administration’s self-imposed goal of slashing federal food assistance programs by $214 billion over the next decade. It was quickly embraced by Mr. Mulvaney, a fiscal hawk who is seeking to steer a debate increasingly dominated by free-spending Republicans and Mr. Trump, who has insisted on major budget increases for the Pentagon and Homeland Security.

Neither man had any illusions that the plan would be immediately embraced by congressional Republicans, who were not given advance notice of the proposal, the officials said.

That the food-box approach has been tried only in small demonstration projects and never been seriously discussed during dozens of congressional hearings on the SNAP program in recent years did not stop administration officials from putting the force of Mr. Trump’s presidency behind it.

‘We would literally not survive’: How Trump’s plans for the social safety net would affect America’s poorest

About 90 million low-income Americans rely on Medicaid, housing subsidies or food stamps.Since the day in January 2010 when teenager Courtney Bias and her 1-week-old daughter were kicked out of her mother’s house, the young family has slept wherever they can: under bridges. On strangers’ floors. In city parks.

The White House said Trump isn ’ t fixated on his past successes or the investigations shadowing his administration. He’ s struggled in office to fulfill several of his lofty campaign promises, including overhauling President Barack Obama’ s White House officials say that to Trump , Clinton and her

The box , coined as "USDA America' s Harvest Box ," would include food grown by American farmers including milk, juice, cereals, pasta, canned produce, and more, according to the administration' s Banks said she’ s angered by the Trump administration' s proposed 3 billion cut to SNAP .

The budget documents released on Monday omitted other important details, including the real costs of creating a nationwide distribution network for the boxes, especially in rural areas hard hit by the economic downturn and the opioid crisis.

“We have had like 25 hearings on SNAP. The witness list was controlled by Republicans and this idea was never, ever broached,” said Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees federal food assistance programs. “I think it’s dead on arrival — I hope it is — but either way it’s a cruel joke. My God, these people are awful. In addition to being totally misinformed on policy, they are really just not nice people.”

In a statement, Mr. Perdue defended the proposal as humane and cost effective, saying his plan offered the “same level of food value” provided by the SNAP program, which replaced the food stamp program in the late 1990s.

He described the boxes as “a bold, innovative approach to providing nutritious food to people who need assistance feeding themselves and their families — and all of it is grown by American farmers and producers.”

Still, the idea landed with a thud. It was quickly dismissed by two Republican committee chairmen, Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, who leads the Senate agriculture committee, and his counterpart in the House, Representative K. Michael Conaway of Texas.

Trump's budget hits poor Americans the hardest

Trump's budget proposal would cut billions from the social safety net while paving the way for broad work requirements for families receiving housing vouchers.The Trump budget proposal would gut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps, by &dollar;17.2 billion in 2019 -- equivalent to 22 percent of the program’s total cost last year. It calls for additional cuts of more than &dollar;213.5 billion over the next decade, a reduction of nearly 30 percent, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

A man barred from owning firearms shot two officers with a gun purchased by a friend, officials say . Court: Fischbach can remain senator and lieutenant governor for now. North Branch mayor 'Gump' in 8th race. Trump wants to overhaul America' s safety net with giant cuts to housing

Trump ’ s latest innovation? The USDA “ Harvest Box ” idea. Here’s how it works The box would be valued at about half of the SNAP recipient’s monthly benefit. Via Fox 8: “It’s a risky scheme that threatens families’ ability to put food on the table,” said Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance

Mr. Conaway is drafting a farm bill that is expected to slash billions in spending in the SNAP program through the tightening of some eligibility requirements. Mr. Roberts is overseeing an effort to craft a version of the bill that is expected to include fewer cuts in hopes of gaining the bipartisan support needed to push the measure through the Senate.

SNAP, like many other safety net programs, is designed to expand during hard economic times and contract when the economy improves. Nonetheless, the program’s rolls have remained at historically elevated levels, reaching a peak of 47.8 million recipients in 2012 before edging down to 45.6 million last year, according to federal estimates.

Mr. Perdue, in particular, has been outspoken in his call to reduce its rolls, criticizing what he calls a culture of dependency among SNAP recipients.

But Mr. McGovern said the administration was painting “a distorted picture” of the poor and ignoring the fact that most SNAP recipients are employed and more than a quarter are disabled and unable to seek work.

“They have to stop playing to the cheap seats,” he said. “The majority of people in the program are children and seniors and people working in jobs that pay too little to feed their families.”

Trump Jr.'s wife exposed to non-hazardous white powder: police .
<p>Vanessa Trump, the wife of Donald Trump Jr., and two other people were taken to a hospital on Monday after she opened a piece of mail containing an unidentified white powder that was later determined not to be hazardous, New York officials said.</p>"The substance had arrived by mail and it was addressed to Donald Trump Jr.," said New York Police Department spokesman Carlos Nieves.

The proposal unveiled in President Trump ’ s budget would overhaul the country’s core food assistance program — commonly known as SNAP . Not Anytime Soon, Officials Say . Image. People paid for fresh produce using federal assistance at a farmers market in Lake Orion, Mich., in 2013.CreditLauren

The Trump administration has proposed a radical overhaul to the food stamp program that would replace some people’ s benefits with a “ Harvest box ” “It’ s an enormous cut in benefits,” Vollinger said of the Trump budget proposal for SNAP . “That’ s really the biggest takeaway.” Was this article helpful?

President Donald Trump wants to radically overhaul a critical safety net program that covers more than 42 million people — or roughly one in eight Americans. The package, called America’ s Harvest Box , would be like Blue Apron for poor folks, White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said on Monday.

Pence ‘thinks Jesus tells him to say things’, says former Trump aide. But they have come up with a snappy name of their own for these putative bundles of nutrition and deliciousness: “America’ s Harvest Box ”.

The Trump administration has proposed a radical overhaul to the food stamp program that would replace some people’ s benefits with a “ Harvest box ” “It’ s an enormous cut in benefits,” Vollinger said of the Trump budget proposal for SNAP . “That’ s really the biggest takeaway.” Was this article helpful?

Trump wants to slash food stamps and replace them with - www.thestar.com

Mulvaney’ s remarks drew raised eyebrows from some critics, who accuse the Trump administration official of drawing an unfair comparison between the food But the administration’ s SNAP proposal was particularly striking, advocates and experts said “USDA America’ s Harvest Box is a bold

The White House said Trump isn ’ t fixated on his past successes or the investigations shadowing his administration. He’ s struggled in office to fulfill several of his lofty campaign promises, including overhauling President Barack Obama’ s White House officials say that to Trump , Clinton and her

"Parents have the right to send their kids to school in the mornings and see them home alive at the end of the day," organizers of the walkout wrote on a Facebook page.Students are released from a lockdown outside of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. after […]

Va., Md. and others would keep driver’s licenses and in-state tuition despite plans to end programs affecting several hundred thousand immigrants.Immigrants from Central America, Haiti and Sudan will see their temporary protected status expire over the next 18 months, while the fate […]

&nbsp;She hid in a dark classroom closet, as the world outside was only beginning to learn about the murder of 17 students and teachers at her high school, and quietly told a classmate that she could no longer imagine doing what she'd planned to do on her 18th birthday: go to the […]

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High won't have to return to the three-story building that was the site was the deadliest school shooting in Florida history. The school district plans to tear down and then replace the freshman building on campus, Broward […]

Speaking to hundreds of people at a vigil in Florida Thursday night, father Fred Guttenberg described seeing his 14-year-old daughter for the last time Wednesday morning, just hours before she was killed in one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history. Speaking to the crowd […]

"There's no disrespect or insensitivity intended by this long-planned gun show," a statement from organizers said. Related: Why so many people love the AR-15The deadly shooting in Parkland has at least one gun vendor outraged at the systemic flaws that allowed Cruz to get an […]

He died shielding students from gunfire. He captured the gunman. She hid students in a closet. Load Error Tales of heroism have emerged as survivors recall the moments after a gunman opened fire Wednesday at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Here are […]